09/06/2022
• UPDATE ON FOREST FIRES IN BOUNDARY COUNTY, 6 September 2022:
A NOTE BEFORE YOU READ THIS ARTICLE: Along with this article about the current forest fires in Boundary County, please see also the Facebook photo album in the next post just below, with 14 photographs and a 1 minute, 50 second video showing a helicopter loading water from the Kootenai River. Those images go along with this article.
NOW, HERE IS THE ARTICLE:
The multiple forest fires in Boundary County continue to burn and, in the face of concerning weather conditions, remain at risk for progression and advancement.
Last Friday, fire officials grouped all the several forest fires in the Boundary County area into a single forest fire incident, which was named the Kootenai River Complex Fire.
As of around 9:00 am this morning, the burn area for the combined components of the Kootenai River Complex Fire is 12,487 acres. This Boundary County fire is currently the fourth largest fire in Idaho out of 21 fires now burning in the state. Information on the three larger Idaho fires is provided below near the end of this article.
Getting back to our local fires, the Kootenai River Complex Fire, Forest Service officials report there are 168 fire personnel working the fires here. Multiple helicopters can be seen throughout the day carrying water drawn from the Kootenai River and fire retardants to attack the fires. On observing activity at the Westside Road area near the fires yesterday, it was seen that about every one minute a helicopter would rotate back to the nearby Kootenai River to refill its water tank and return to re-engage with the fires.
The Westside road is the area where homes and other built structures are under greatest threat from these fires. There are crews stationed at points along the Westside Road, who along with other duties are working to help prepare protection for structures and putting in place equipment and measures to protect the buildings at risk there. These crews stationed on Westside Road will be, and have been, working into the night.
There are no evacuation orders at this time, however under the "Ready-Set-Go" evacuation system, residents along the Westside Road near Burton Road and Ball Creek Road are currently on "Set" evacuation status.
Some of the farmers of the valley land east of the Kootentai River have used their equipment to build fire breaks on their land. Boundary County Emergency Management staff have sent out notification that there will be controlled field / stubble burns on some of the privately-owned lands in the high risk areas. This "pre-burning" is intended to inhibit spot fires from being started by floating, glowing, hot embers from the nearby forest fires.
The Boundary County Commissioners declared a county emergency on September 2, citing numerous rapidly growing fires that threaten firefighter and public safety, structures, private timber, livestock, and crop protection.
Fire officials have advised that wind-driven runs and short range spotting of these fires is expected to continue with general spread of the fires to the east and north, potentially putting structures in danger. They are predicting that Wednesday and Thursday will be the days of greatest risk for possible damage to structures. "Wednesday and Thursday will be the days to watch," they said in their recent press release. Rain is not expected.
At this time officials are estimating that the fire will be contained by mid-October.
As mentioned above, the Kootenai River Complex is Idaho's fourth largest fire at the time of this writing. The three Idaho fires that are larger than the Kootenai Complex are:
1. Moose Fire near Salmon, Idaho. This a is human-caused fire, which has burned 107,523 acres. Total personnel working this fire is 705.
2. Ross Fork Fire, located near Alturas Lake in central Idaho's Sawtooth area. This fire has burned 24,026 acres and is currently 4% contained. The Ross Fork fire had a dramatic increase in fire behavior yesterday. Idaho Highway 75 in the area, which travels through Stanley, Idaho, was closed overnight. Some areas near the fire are in a mandatory Level 3 "GO" evacuation. This fire is about 90 miles northeast of Boise.
3. Four Corners Fire, located just west of Lake Cascade and about 20 miles south of McCall, Idaho. This fire has burned 13,645 acres.
Please take a look at the photographs in the album in the next post just below this post. These photographs show the fires, some of the helicopters in use, some fire crews, and more. We have also prepared a video of 1 minute, 50 seconds duration, showing a Sikorsky helicopter dropping low over the surface of the Kootenai River to draw up another load of water to drop on the burning slopes of the west side. That video is in the photo album seen in the post just below this one.
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